Princess Royal Fortress Military Museum > Records

First World War Postcard of 'The Boulaq Market', Egypt

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Leon & Levy

1900 - 1919

Overview

A black and white artistic postcard depicting a very large crowd of men at what appears to be a market. Two wooden enclosures can be seen as well as a taller structure that appears to have railings on top. Wooden carts can be seen amongst the crowd including one that has fruit of some sort on it. There are also possibly stalls along the right-hand side of the image. The area is interspersed with trees and buildings can just be seen in the distance. The postcard is in good condition with slight damage on one corner and light dirt marks on the reverse. The front is printed with a description of the image, and the reverse has proforma printing.

Historical information

Boulaq is a historic district in northwestern Cairo positioned along the eastern bank of the Nile River

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-12-2022.1.154

Item type

Postcards

Themes

War and Conflict > World War 1

Material

Card

Width

139 mm

Height or length

89 mm

Inscriptions and markings

In machine printing, on the front “138 CAIRO. – The Bulak Market – LL.”. On the reverse “138 LE CAIRE – Le Marche du Boulak. – LL”.

Contextual information

Léon & Lévy was a French photographic studio founded in 1864 by Moyse Léon and Isaac Lévy. Through the years, the studio went through a series of name changes to reflect the changes of ownership. By 1889, the collection grew to 30,000 photographs with images from Spain to Morocco, Europe, Asia, Africa and America. The studio was renamed to Lévy Fils et Cie in 1895 when Lévy’s two sons (Abraham and Gaspard Lévy) inherited the business. Under the two Lévy brothers, the studio transformed into a postcard publisher, and they incorporated the studio under the trademark of LL in 1901. By this time, the studio was the second largest French postcard publisher

Keywords

First World War

Egypt

Place made

Egypt

Year

1900 - 1919

Primary significance criteria

Historic significance

Comparative significance criteria

Interpretive capacity

Well provenanced